


First Order IT, Can I Get Your User ID?

by krossartist



Series: First Order IT [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, I know very little about computers and even less about cars, IT Guy Kylo, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Mechanic Rey, so of course I would write about a mechanic and an IT guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-07 09:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20306947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krossartist/pseuds/krossartist
Summary: Niima Outpost was a humble little auto shop, with only Rey and her friend/co-worker Finn at its helm. But despite its small-town, local charm, it was a branch company of First Order Incorporated. For all the little branches and all the different businesses, they had one IT department. A massive IT department, she was sure of it, it had to be.And yet whenever Rey had to call IT, which was about twice the amount of times a normal person would call "excessive," she got the same IT guy. Every. Damn. Time.She named him Fuckhead.He had grown to hate her fondly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by and dedicated to my coworker and a three hour conversation she had with the IT guy, Tom. If Kylo ever sounds out of character, blame Tom.  
Thank you both for helping bring about the first fic I've ever managed to complete.

"First Order IT; user ID please."

"It's Niima Outpost," she grumbled.

Rey listened to the IT guy mumble to himself as he typed in her ID, which he'd long since memorized. "K2SO-BB8, and what fuck up can I fix for you today?"

"Go die in a hole. That'll solve my problems."

"Well I may be a fuck up, but if I could fix myself I would have done it a long time ago. Anything technology related?"

She was reluctant to answer.

Niima Outpost was a humble little auto shop, with only Rey and her friend/co-worker Finn at its helm. But despite its small-town, local charm, it was indeed owned by Galactic Engineering, which was in turn a branch company of First Order Incorporated. For all the little branches and all the different businesses, they had one IT department. A massive IT department, she was sure of it, it _had_ to be.

And yet whenever Rey had to call IT, which was about twice the amount of times a normal person would call "excessive," she got the same IT guy. Every. Damn. Time.

She named him Fuckhead.  
He had grown to hate her fondly.

"Come on," he prodded. "Neither of us has all day and I KNOW you didn't call just to hear my voice."

The IT guy _does_ have a pretty voice, though, she admitted traitorously to herself. Deep and smooth, even when he's swearing. Which he does a lot when she calls. "I have a pop-up that won't go away. When I try and close it out, it makes two more. I have a pop-up hydra."

"Jolly good," he said, mocking her English accent. She was waiting for that. He typically does it once every three or four calls and it was well overdue. "And have you tried turning the system off and back on again?"

"You think I'd have called you if I didn't try that already, wanker? The blasted thing came back up as soon as I logged back on. With all its friends."

"Alright, quit your bitching and hit the button to let me access your site remotely, you know where it is."

She did nothing.

"You still there?"

"Yeah."

"Then click the damn button."

"I know I have to, but I don't want to."

"Quit being a baby, just give me access."

She whined wordlessly the whole time, but clicked the button to share her screen with him and held her breath.

He was silent for a solid two minutes.

"Oh my god," he eventually said, choking on a laugh.

"Don't say anything, just get rid of them."

"I have to say something."

"No. No you don't. What you _have_ to do is _fix it, Fuckhead_, so I don't have to destroy company property and waste my shop's very limited budget on purchasing a new computer!"

"Tell you what, you tell me exactly how many tits are currently visible on the screen, and I won't say a single thing further about it."

"There's twenty-eight and a half tits and six dicks," she answered automatically.

"Twenty-eight and a half?"

"That one that… moves... only has a single side-boob coming in and out of frame, so it's only on the screen half the time."

"Huh," he said incredulously, a brief pause as he no doubt checked her work. "That was a fast response."

"It took an hour to convince myself to call you in my shame. They've become familiar. At least they've stopped multiplying."

"I'll install a stronger pop-up blocker and scrub your system of viruses," he finally said with a laugh. "If only I could do the same of our memories. Stay on the line."

"About time, Fuckhead."

"Yeah yeah, salty bitch, you're welcome."

\---

"First Order IT; user ID?"

"K2SO-BB8."

Fuckhead's telltale sigh came through the phone speaker. She was pretty sure he could just start answering the phone with a sigh and she'd still know it was him. "What did you do this time?"

"_I_ didn't do anything!" Fuming with pissed-off energy, Rey started pacing the five foot space her phone cord allowed her to travel. "My computer froze, so I turned it off and on and now I'm stuck in an endless log-in loop. It takes my password, buffers for a while, then sends me straight back to 'enter your user ID.' It's maddening."

"_You're_ maddening," he muttered under his breath, typing away at his keyboard.

"Would you like to repeat that a little louder?"

"You heard me just fine the first time." He sighed again and she heard a rustling sound. The next time he spoke his voice was father away. Did that tosser seriously take off his headset while she was on the line? "Well, for once you are right. This isn't your fault."

"Hah! Told you so! Suck my dick," she cheered, making sure she could be heard. Static again, and he was back at full volume.

"No offense, but I was under the impression you didn't have one."

"I don't, but you're enough of a dick for the both of us, so if you go fuck yourself, you'll manage both at the same time."

"Nice save."

"Thank you."

"Though, you do know that implies I am _your_ dick, right?"

Rey paused her pacing, going back over the words she said in her head, and dreadfully finding his logic to be sound. "No comment."

"Awww, you like me."

"I do not."

"Yes you do, admit it, you like me."

"Who likes you?" she heard someone say faintly in the background.

"Niima Outpost."

"I knew it."

"I'm not going to play this game with you," Rey groused. She caught Finn in her peripheral, stopping by the counter for a cookie break. "I don't like you and _you_ know it."

"Do I, though?" She could practically hear the shit-eating-grin in his voice. "I think you might be hiding your true feelings."

"I am not."

"Is that IT?" Finn asked.

"Yes," she grumbled.

He grinned deviously, white teeth contrasting against his dark skin, and leaned his body over the counter. His feet kicked off the floor gleefully so he could get as close to the phone as possible.

"You're her favorite!"

"I'm going to commit an act of violence."

"Nooo," Fuckhead fake-whined into the mic. "You'll go to jail and we've only just found each other."

Finn walked away laughing and Rey felt her blood pressure spike to an alarming level. "Alright, Fuckhead, listen up and listen good," she said, dropping her voice menacingly.

"Yes, dear?"

"One more word on this asinine topic, and I will scour the deepest dredges of the internet for all the websites corporate has failed to lock out, and download every virusy looking file and pornographic pop-up I can get my cursor on, and you will have to work on my computer for _weeks_. And I will _not_ stay on the line."

"...It's a draw."

"I'll concede to that."

"Permission to say one more thing partially on topic that I'm ninety percent sure won't piss you off?"

She hissed a sigh between her teeth. "Granted."

"I like you," he said, and Rey felt all the fight drain out of her, replaced by pure shock. "Not like some creepy stalker, just, I like you as a person. You're fun to talk to. And I know it's not your choice to have the absolute worst computer in the whole company, and it's not your fault you have to call all the time. So, yeah, just know that I don't actually mind when you call. You're not a bad part of my day."

"Oh," Rey choked out. "O...okay."

"Make sure your login works?"

She gave it a couple rounds of logging in and out, no issues. "Seems good."

"Alright, have a good rest of the day."

"Talk to you soon," she said with a growing smile.

He was still laughing as he hung up.

\---

"First Order IT; can I get your user ID?"

"It's K2SO-BB8."

Fuckhead chuckled. "I was wondering when I'd hear from you."

Rey groaned and dropped her head into her hand, elbows propped on the table. "Join forces with me," she pleaded. "With a wrench in my hand and you by my side with a laptop, we shall take down these corporate overlords who order completely unnecessary system updates and are dragging my prehistoric computer into an even earlier grave."

"As someone who works on said updates, I can assure you they are necessary. Your computer is just a piece of shit."

"Which the corporate overlords refuse to replace! Come on, pick my side. I have biscuits."

"Mmm, tempting, but those corporate overlords pay my salary."

"Shit."

He laughed, the sound making Rey smile.

"Hey, what's your name?" she asked.

It took him a minute to answer. "Well typically you call me Fuckhead. Is that not good enough anymore?"

"I dunno, I just feel like I can't be calling you that _all_ the time. We're actually starting to like each other, possibly starting a resistance, getting to know one another. I mean," she put on her best American Valley Girl voice, which was one of the few impressions she can do that makes her drop her English accent. "We _have_ watched porn together."

He laughed loudly enough it hurt her ear over the receiver, but she didn't mind. "That we have. You can call me Kylo."

"Oof. What possessed your poor parents to name you that?"

"My parents didn't name me that. The company did. K-Y-L-0 are the first four characters of my user ID. When I started here there was already a guy with the same name as me, so the rest of IT just started calling me Kylo."

"Neat, a code name," she said conspiratorially. "You should call me Niima, then. Most of my customers do, anyway."

"Isn't that the name of the shop you manage?"

"Yeah, but no matter what the signs say, the locals started calling it 'Niima's Outpost' and it's stuck. I've been answering to Niima for a year now."

"So in the spirit of getting to know each other better," he drawled, heavy on the sarcasm. "We're going to call each other by fake names."

"It's a good professional boundary to have."

"Niima, the porn broke down any semblance of professional boundaries we ever pretended to have."

"I was implying that we have no boundaries and are in need of some. Get on my level, Kylo."

"I don't think my IQ can drop that low."

She gasped in mock offense. "I'll have you know I got a 1476 on my SAT and I'm taking online classes for my Master's in mechanical engineering."

"Online classes? With your luck with computers?"

"My home laptop works just fine, thank you very much. Now admit you were wrong about my intelligence."

"I'm getting another call."

"No you're not!"

"My boss needs me, your program's good, I gotta go, I'm so sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Admit defeat, Kylo!"

"You're cutting out... I... can't hear-"

"Don't you dare run away from me, you tosser!"

"Bye~"

_"Kylo!"_

*Click*

\---

A company wide update refused to download, making Rey's system essentially useless for the fifth time in three months. Kylo said it was something about not having enough space or whatever to save and he complained about having to move things onto different drives to make room. It had taken him fifteen minutes to get it all switched around, and the program was finally downloading. At the speed of a snail. And of course, she had to _stay on the line_.

"I could've done two oil changes by now."

"If you hang up, it is your way of telling karma to stop downloading this program and you will have to call me back and we will have to start all over again." His voice was slightly muffled. He must've had his head down on his desk. She didn't blame him. "You did that six months ago and I had to stay an hour late because of it. Never again, Niima. Never again."

"Finn had to do everything by himself."

"Excuse me for wanting to make sure your computer is working in time for quarterly reports. You're staying on the line," he stated with finality.

Rey grumbled wordlessly, knowing she had expense reports due by the end of day tomorrow and that, as usual, he was right. Plus she gets her best business on Saturdays, so she wanted this done this afternoon. She sat cross-legged on her desk, leaving Kylo on speakerphone as she cleaned random car parts with a can of compressed air, partly just to have something to do and partly because she knew the sporadic _pffts_ annoyed him.

"What are you up to this weekend?" she asked, breaking the boredom.

"There's an event at my MMA gym tomorrow. I'm going to spend three hours being used as the test dummy for 'how to make a guy twice your size your bitch,' and then making sure a bunch of thirteen year olds don't put each other in the hospital."

"You do MMA?"

"Well I'm not really the competing type, but yeah, I go to practice a few times a week."

"I will need to recalibrate the basement-dwelling anime-dudebro mental image I had of you."

He snorted into the mic. "I live in my own third-floor apartment, and I _don't_ watch anime."

"What's wrong with anime?"

"_Everything_ is wrong with anime."

"Watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and try to clap back at me."

"Whatever," he scoffed. "What about you?"

"I _love_ anime."

"No, I meant what are you doing this weekend?"

"Oh. Well, work tomorrow, but Sunday I'm going rock climbing with my friend Rose."

Kylo chuckled softly. "Mental image sustained."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're a female mechanic. That doesn't tend to go hand in hand with ballet dancing or knitting or other stereotypical ladylike activities."

"I'll have you know I'm an excellent baker."

"Cookies or it didn't happen."

"Challenge accepted. Give me your address, I'll airmail them."

"Uh. O-okay." He rattled off the corporate office's address in New York with the IT suite number, voice on autopilot.

"Attention to…?"

"Kylo Ren." She started to laugh at him. "Trust me. Over half the department doesn't know my real name either. It'll be more likely to get to me that way."

"Alright, alright," she chuckled. "Any food allergies I should be aware of?"

"No."

"Good."

"You're actually going to send me cookies, aren't you," he said incredulously.

"You're damn right I am, my feminine reputation is on the line."

"Meanwhile, my reputation as your personal miracle worker is maintained. Your download is complete."

"Oh thank fuck. My arse is killing me, and a mustang pulled up that is just _begging_ me to get my hands on it."

"Fly, be free."

"Be sure to check your mail," she said, spraying the compressed air at the phone.

"I will," he laughed.

\--

"Niima Outpost, how can I help you?"

"Niima?"

What the fu- "Kylo?!" Apparently it was topsy-turvy day because not once in the year and a half she has worked here has IT _ever_ called her.

"Where did you learn to bake?" He sounded half out of it. And like his mouth was half-full.

"I taught myself."

"Oh my god…"

"I swear, they're just regular brownies, there is no pot in there, are you okay."

"They're not _just regular_ brownies, there's tiny chocolate chips in them that melt in your mouth."

"Well yeah, they're better that way."

"Hell yes they are. It's official. You're my best friend now."

"Finn has dibs."

"Put him on the phone."

"Hold on," she said, confusion on the rise. She put the phone on the desk and opened the door into the shop. "Finn?" His head popped up out of the oil-change pit. "Kylo from IT is on the phone. He wants to talk to you."

"Fuckhead wants to talk to me?" he asked, as confused as she was. He headed into the office anyway.

"Yeah."

"I don't even have computer accesses."

She shrugged and gestured to the phone for him to pick it up.

"This is Finn… you're damn right, she is… _fight you?!_ Hell yeah, I'll fight you, Fuckhead… no... no, I was not aware of that… okay… alright, cool." He put the phone back down on the desk, then turned to put a hand on Rey's shoulder and look deeply in her eyes. "Know that I will always love you."

"Did you just forfeit your best friend title?!"

"Dude's been doing MMA for ten years, man, I can't beat that."

Rey picked the phone back up, still glaring at Finn, who was retreating backwards with his hands shaped like a heart over his chest. "Traitor. I trusted you."

"I win," Kylo said cheerfully. "You're mine now."

"I'm glad you like them," she pouted as Finn left the office. She grabbed a parts catalogue and fanned her face. It got warm in there fast… Damned California heat, even in September.

"I took off your child locks," he said, talking with his mouth full again.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"The program that keeps you from being able to go to web pages the company doesn't want you to go to. YouTube, Facebook, Spotify, the like. I turned yours off. My gift to you."

Rey sighed blissfully into the phone. She could listen to _music. Finally._ "Thank you."

"Your mental image in my head wears an apron over coveralls now."

"Splattered in equal parts flour and grease?"

"Yup. With a Union Jack pattern."

_"Nice."_

\---

"First Order IT; user ID?"

"K2SO-BB8."

The phone crackled as Kylo sighed into his headset. "Whatcha got for me this time, Niima?"

She dropped her head to the desk with an audible thump.

"Youuuu okay?" he asked.

"It kicked me out again."

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

Rey adjusted the phone so the bottom was closer to her mouth. The handset clunked against the desktop and joined her face.

"The records system kicked me out again. It's refusing to recognize my username."

He sighed again, the sound triggering a wave of calm to go over her and make her shoulders relax. "I keep telling you, you have to log in at least once every thirty days."

"That rule is stupid," she whined. "Especially for a program I only have to use once a quarter."

"I'll reinstate your access. Stay on the line."

"Thanks."

It was silent between them for several minutes, the soft clacking of his keyboard drifting through the phone.

"Long day?"

She raised a brow, the skin of her forehead catching uncomfortably against the wooden desktop. "Are you initiating small talk?"

He snorted dismissively and went back to typing. "You just sound defeated," he mumbled. "Usually you have at least one or two swear words to throw at me."

Rey hummed, debating whether or not she wanted to talk to him. Loneliness eventually won out.

"Long week. I cut my hand badly enough for stitches a couple days ago." He hissed in a sympathetic breath. "Yeah. It sucks. Trying to work with it is making everything slower, and things are backing up. Corporate has certain turnaround time demands for the shops, and I'm gonna be working late all week to meet them."

"Don't you have anyone else who works there to help out?"

"Finn's on vacation for two weeks. His boyfriend works for Boeing and they're in Seattle for Thanksgiving. I'm… I'm on my own this year."

"What's the other one doing?"

"Rose?"

"Yeah."

"She's down in L.A. with her family."

"Oh. And you don't have any family in the area?"

"No," she said, not bothering to correct him further.

"I'm gonna be alone on Thanksgiving, too," he told her lightly.

"Oh yeah?" She perked up and then immediately felt bad about it. Misery must really love its company. "What are you going to do on your day off?"

"Not cook turkey, because fuck that noise." She laughed. "There's a bookstore up the street from my apartment owned by some Canadians. They don't give a shit about the American version of the holiday, so I'll probably hunker down there in the peace and quiet."

"Huh. Nice."

"Plenty of places are open when you don't expect it. You just need to find somewhere that suits you."

"I'll see what I can find," she said with a smile. Rey tried to think of places she spent Thanksgiving alone and unhappy before. Maybe there was a place that needed volunteers.

"Make sure your login works."

She typed in her user ID and password, instantly being granted access to the bookkeeping program that reported her numbers to corporate. "Flawless as always, Kylo."

"Can't go letting my best customer down. I hope your hand gets better soon."

"Thanks. Have a good time next week."

"You too."

\---

"First Order IT, user ID," Kylo bit out as soon as the line connected.

"Ooh, we're grumpy today." He sighed when he heard her voice and she smiled to herself. "Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the swivel chair?"

"No, but I did come in to an office with a broken heater and it's cold as fuck. This had better be good, Niima, I've got fifteen minutes before I'm supposed to be free of this frozen vice grip."

"Is that your pet name for your headset?"

"Shut up. And for your information, it does indeed hurt my ears."

"I'm sorry," she said in a fake-as-fuck baby voice, hitting the button that gave him site access. "Anyway, all of my files have gone poof."

"What the fuck," he said under his breath as he took control of her computer.

Rey closed her eyes and listened to what had become the comforting sound of his hands typing away at his keyboard. It was like the first sip of a stiff drink, knowing that the pain and frustration would all float away soon.

"Some idiot up the IT ladder is switching around the drives to different servers and managed to unmap your files from your network."

"I have no idea what any of that means but it _almost_ sounds like it's not my fault?"

"In this case, no, it is not your fault."

"Yessss," she whispered in success. "So, can you fix it?"

"You insult me by even asking that. Of course I can fix it. Stay on the line…"

"Okay," Rey laughed. She spun around in lazy circles, letting the phone cord wrap around her waist. "So what's Christmas like in New York?"

"Icy, mostly, and I've had to dodge two Ugly Sweater events already. But they blitz out the office lobby to look as much like Time Square as possible and hold a party kind of like the one in Die Hard, so that's cool."

"Ooh, swanky. Complete with Hans Gruber?"

"I wish."

"Laaame."

He snorted. "What about you? Where's the Outpost located, anyway?"

"Northern California. No white Christmases for me," she sighed.

"No wonder you have no respect for the east coast working hours." He was silent for a minute before speaking again. "My parents live out there, in Sacramento," he said slowly, like he had almost decided not to say it at all.

"Oh yeah? You should swing by when you come to visit sometime. Let me buy you a drink."

Kylo laughed. "Are you flirting with me, Niima?"

"Hell no, I just think you've earned it after having to deal with me multiple times a month for the past year."

"True, I do deserve it."

"What does your family do when you come to California?"

"It's been a long time since I was out to the west coast," he mumbled.

"Oh, so your parents usually come to visit you there?"

"No."

"...You don't visit your parents?"

He sighed again. "Not for a long time. We had a bit of a falling out a while back. I've barely talked to them since."

"How long is 'a while?'"

"I don't know… maybe eight, nine years?"

"Years?! H… how? How did it come to that?"

"Look, some people just don't try to understand their kids, okay? I got angry and I walked away."

"For nine years?" she gasped.

"Yes."

"But…"

"I'd prefer not to get into this right now."

"But they were your _parents!_ And you just-"

"Yeah, when they _deigned_ to have the time."

"-Left _everything_ behind?!"

"It's not like it was _easy_-"

"For nine years?! I mean-"

"-_None_ of it has been _easy_-"

"-I can't even imagine-"

"No! You can't! Because _you weren't there!!"_

Rey's heart caught in her throat. For a long few minutes they were silent, her pulse and his breathing the only things she could hear.

"Please don't hang up," she whispered.

There was a thump on the other end of the line and his voice came through muffled. "I won't."

"Okay."

"Can you check and make sure your files are all there?"

"Yeah."

Rey took over the cursor, moving through the files, checking that everything was present, opened, and saved without issue. Kylo was quiet for long enough she came to the conclusion that he was truly bent on ignoring her until he finished this job.

"Hey," he started, voice rough. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."

"No, I get it, you said you didn't want to talk about it, I shouldn't have pushed."

"I'm not mad at you."

"Still friends, then?"

"Is Finn around to fight me for my title?"

"No," she said with a chuckle.

"Then I reign supreme."

"Kylo?"

"Hmm?"

"Permission to push, one more thing?"

"...Granted."

"Are you still angry? At your parents?"

"No," he answered quietly.

"Kylo, I... I think you should go see your parents. Or even just call them. I mean," Rey scrambled for words, knowing she was commenting on things she had no real knowledge of. "I don't know what went on between you and them but… well, family _means_ something and I'm sure, unless you're, like, some kind of serial killer and if so what the hell are you doing wasting your talents in IT-" He snorted. "-I bet they'd really like to see you. It's never too late to try to fix things, if you want to, at least."

"Is this some sort of 'spirit of Christmas' B.S.?"

"No, and if you were here I'd slap you for that comment. The spirit of Christmas is a beautiful thing."

He laughed humorlessly.

"Is it snowing there?"

"Yeah."

She hummed. "I'll live vicariously through you, then. Go throw a snowball at someone for me."

His laugh was real this time. "Alright. And… I'll think about it."

Rey smiled. "Good. Happy Christmas, Kylo."

"Merry Christmas."

She hung up, deciding not to tell him about the package of baked goods on its way to his office.

A week later on the 24th, an envelope popped up in the mail marked "one day shipping." It contained a lone jump drive filled with twelve classic Christmas movies and a card.

_"One for each day. Hope you like them._  
_Merry Christmas._  
_-Kylo"_

\---

"First Order-"

"It's me," Rey choked out.

"What's wrong," Kylo asked, his voice taking on a hard edge when he heard the tears in hers.

"Ah," she paused, sniffling and clearing her throat. "I was trying to log back in after a break and didn't realize the caps lock was on. It's locked down my account because I tried too many times." She tried laughing, but her breath hitched and it completely failed to defuse the tension. She hated having to call him like this. Of course she would screw up her computer _now_.

"Well that's hardly the end of the world," he muttered, the calming clatter if his keyboard in the background.

Rey slid down the cupboard door to sit on the floor, closing her eyes and leaning her head back. "I know." He'd fix it. He always did.

She listened to him breathing, the sound of his hands on the keys soothing. He instructed her to type in her password, and she got to her knees with a groan to stretch uncomfortably across the desk and enter it (_F!xIT008_. She hoped he couldn't see it somewhere in the system or she'd never hear the end of it) then dropped back down to the floor.

The speakers sang a little song as it booted up her desktop. A _ding_ let her know she'd received a new message. Which meant her email was up.

"Oh," Kylo sighed over the line.

Which meant it had opened to preview the last email she'd read.

_To: niimaoutpost@firstorder.com  
From: admin@stpeterschildrenshome.ca.org_

_Good Afternoon,_

_Thank you for reaching out. It is always good to hear from our kids who have moved on, and the children loved having you at Thanksgiving. We are glad to know you are doing well and hope to see you again.  
Unfortunately, we regret to inform you that your documents fail to list any information regarding your mother or father, and a birth certificate was not provided upon your arrival to the home. We are unable to help locate your next of kin-_

Rey cleared her throat and stood up, minimizing the email program and knowing it disappeared off his screen as well.

"Thanks for getting it running," she said quickly, forcing the words past the lump in her throat. "Sorry to bother you this close to the end of your day. Bye." Her voice broke. Fuck.

"Niima-" Kylo's voice came through when she had the phone halfway back to its cradle. "Niima, don't hang up."

She brought it back to her ear slowly. "Yeah?"

"I… I just…" 

Don't, she nearly screamed him, if she could've gotten her voice to work. Don't you dare give me that pitying tone. Not you.

"Finn's in town, right? Or Rose? They didn't go on any trips?"

"Yeah." She rubbed her eyes dry with the sleeve of her coveralls, surprised he remembered her friends' names. "I mean, no, they're both in town. Finn's got the day off, but..."

"Good," Kylo said, his voice sounding tight. "Go do something fun with them. Get dinner or a movie or go bowling or whatever."

She snorted. "Who goes bowling anymore?"

"My mother. Apparently it's fun."

"Why?" she said in a whisper.

"Because you deserve to spend a night out with people who care about you, and… and I don't want you to be alone today."

A strangled sound choked its way out of her chest.

"Enough of that," he said, not unkindly, and before she knew it he'd gone and changed her desktop background to some ridiculous picture of puppies cuddled all over each other.

The sob that had caught in her throat came out as a laugh. "I love corgis," she said with a sniffle, rubbing at her nose with a towel that perpetually smelled of oil.

"Who doesn't?" he asked rhetorically, as a new message notification dinged for her attention. She opened her email back up to watch as _kylo_itsupport@firstorder.com_ flooded her inbox with more puppy pictures. Soon enough, the offending email had disappeared down the list and off her screen. "With how much your queen adores them, it's practically a national requirement, anyway."

"Can.. can I talk to you about this?" she asked hesitantly.

"You don't have to ask."

"It's just… I haven't talked about it before. With anyone."

He paused and cleared his throat. "Well I am your best friend, so it should come with some privileges."

"True." Rey smiled, his ridiculousness making things easier to get off her chest. She sighed and sat on the floor again, leaning the side of her head against the cabinet. "The police reported me abandoned, you know. When I showed up in the States on my own. They even showed my picture on the news, asking if anyone knew who I was or how I got there. A British kid in California, it got some coverage."

"How old were you?"

"Around five. I don't… I don't remember much before that."

"You kept your accent."

"I wanted them to find me," she told him, voice breaking. "I _knew_ my parents were out there, somewhere, and I didn't want my voice to change and risk them not knowing it was me anymore. I remember… I remember them holding my hand, and letting go in a crowd. But I was reported as a lost child both here and in the U.K. and… and no one came. They didn't come to find me, and I don't know _why_. I don't even know what my real last name is. I'm just… nobody."

"You're not," Kylo stated firmly, practically growling. "Not to me. Or Finn, or Rose. You're a strong, talented, brilliant, hilarious person and you don't deserve to be defined by the fuck ups of your parents. Not getting to be in your life is their own damn downfall, not yours."

Rey smiled and made sure it could be heard in her voice, no matter how soft or choked up it was as she told him, "Thanks, Fuckhead."

He laughed quietly, and it actually sounded sincere. "Any time, salty bitch."

"And Kylo?"

"Yeah?"

Stay on the phone with me, just a little bit longer.  
Come to California. Go see your parents again.  
I wish I could be spending the night out with you tonight.

"Have a good night," she said.

"You too."

\---

"Not now, not _now!"_

Rey continued to fight with her ever-hateful computer when the phone started to ring.

"Finn!!!"

The best friend to ever friend Dukes-of-Hazzard slid over the countertop and grabbed the phone just in time to keep it from going to voicemail.

"You've reached the Outpost-est with the mostest, how can I help you today?"

"_Function you tosser,_" she hissed at the monitor. The mouse stopped moving and it didn't respond to any keys smashed. Full on freeze. She could hear Kylo sighing already.

"Alright, what's your location, sir?"

Rey hit the power button on the tower, but it still refused to do anything remotely computer-like except be an asshole. At this point it was just a glorified corgi picture frame. Grumbling every obscenity she could bring to mind, she crawled under the desk to pull the plug.

"I'll be there in 20." Finn hung up and held out a hand just in time to help Rey out from under the desk. "Got a guy who had to jump the curb to avoid a head-on with a soccer mom yelling at her kids. He's fine, so he'll be coming in with the car, but he blew a tire and can't get the engine to turn over. I'm gonna go tow him in."

"Alright, have fun, I'm gonna call Fuckhead."

"_You_ have fun," he laughed. "And get his number, why don't you?"

"I already have his number. On speed dial."

"I mean his actual number, for a phone that has a camera. I want pics of Mr. MMA."

"Go rescue the poor man, Finn," she laughed, shaking her head. He blew her a kiss as he bowed out the door and jogged to their tow truck. Rey picked up the phone, still smiling, and hit the speed-dial button for IT.

"First Order IT, this is Mitaka, how can I help you?"

Her smile disappeared. "Oh. You're not… you're new."

"Just started this week! Can I get your user ID please?

"Um, yeah. It's K2…"

-

"Hey, help me unhitch this."

Rey wiped her hands off and jogged over to the tow truck to help Finn get the scuffed up, three wheeled car into the garage. She'd dived headfirst into one of her pet projects after getting off the phone with IT. Working with her hands always made her feel better, and dealing with someone new on the other end of the line had left her head off-kilter.

"Where's the owner?" she asked as they pushed the car into place.

Finn jerked his thumb at the windows that looked into the waiting room/office area. "Inside, nursing a headache. Can't blame him, he did get hit with the airbag."

Rey stepped closer to the window to get a look at the guy slouched in one of the waiting room chairs messing around on his phone. He was maybe pushing thirty, dressed in slacks and a button up, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His long legs were stretched in front of him, and if those forearms were any indication, he was well built. Thick black hair fell just above his shoulders, full mouth twisted in a frown and tugged up on one side by the fist propped against his jaw. Beauty-marks dotted over his face like the universe _was_ going to give him freckles but then went "naw, fuck it" at the last second.

And cherry on top, he had a giant gash that barely missed cutting through his right eye. It carved a path from between his brows down his cheek, dripping blood down the forearm propping his head up and threatening to stain her carpet.

"Ohmygod, FINN!! I thought you said he was fine!"

"_He_ said he was fine! _I_ said he should go to the hospital!"

"That is _not_ 'fine,' Finn! That is 'dripping blood on my floor', that is the opposite of 'fine!'" Rey snapped, dashing to the back of the garage to rummage for her first aid kit.

"Did you not hear what I just said I told him?! Hospital! Dude wouldn't go!"

"That doesn't mean we just let him hemorrhage in the waiting room!"

She kicked a carburetor out of the way and cursed the magical property of an auto shop for spontaneously materializing stray parts. After pushing a couple boxes of piston rods aside, she was finally able to grab the sizable kit out from under the bench and made her way toward the door.

"I didn't _let_ him do anything! The guy is as stubborn as an ox, and," Finn dropped volume to hiss at her, side-eyeing the man through the window. Not that he'd be able to hear even if Finn was still yelling, since the wall was built to muffle the sound of their drills. "He's a _lot_ bigger than me. And really intimidating."

Rey shook her head at him and hauled the kit into the waiting room.

"I'm not going to the hospital," the customer grumbled to her as the door shut behind her, maintaining eye contact with his phone screen.

"And _I'm_ not going to let you bleed out on my carpet," she drawled back. That got him to look up. The accent usually does. It's not every day you hear proper English in the middle of nowhere California, and a woman in her mid-twenties running an auto shop was also a rare sight. She was a double feature.

His black eyes stared her down like he was trying to figure out where he knew her from. Finn was right, though; the man had resting-bitch-glare and the blood made it that much better. It really was intimidating, if you were the type to be intimidated. However, growing up in foster care, particularly spending your formative teen years fostered at a junkyard with a bunch of meat heads, and having the knowledge that you most likely escaped from child traffickers at age five, did not tend to yield easily-intimidated types. Rey popped a hand on her hip glared right back.

After a silent argument of "you're damn right I'm going to wipe up that blood whether you like it or not," the customer conceded with a sigh that made her breath catch.

The fuck?

"Alright, fine, get it over with."

She shook her head a bit to focus and dragged another chair in front of him to get to work. Of course that meant cleaning blood off his face and arm, which was a weirdly intimate action that she had not thought through. Rey cleared her throat and focused on the task at hand. She's good at fixing things, computers excluded. This was no different from patching up a gouge in the side of a car. Just different tools. And it's someone's face.

A pretty face.

_Stop it._

"My name's Rey, by the way," she said, gingerly wiping the blood off his cheek.

He cracked open his good eye to look over at her. "Ben."

"Nice to meet you, Ben." She grinned and he quirked a small smile in return. "So what cut you up?"

He pulled a mangled pair of glasses out of his shirt pocket as an answer. "Airbag knocked them into my face," he said, his deep voice rumbling in his chest. "Never should've switched from contacts." She noticed a few more abrasions across his nose, cheeks, and jaw and made a mental note to disinfect them after dealing with the gash.

"Hydrogen peroxide and butterfly bandages aren't going to keep this from scarring."

He just shrugged. "It is what it is."

"Really not a fan of hospitals, huh?"

"No."

"Eh, guess I can't fault you there. Hold still, this is going to sting."

He closed his eyes and took the peroxide like a trooper.

"What did you do to your hand?" he asked, noting the scar along her palm as she taped up his face.

"Cut it changing a fan belt a couple months ago." She shrugged. "It's fine now."

"The belt or your hand?"

"Both," she laughed.

"The car's not totaled, is it?" he asked, looking out the window, voice tense.

"No. It needs some work, but everything is within my power to fix."

His shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath of relief. "Good. The woman who almost hit me gave me your number. Said you were the best mechanic around."

"An entirely true statement," she said with false arrogance. "Pretty attached to your car, huh?"

"It's my dad's. He's letting me use it while I'm out here."

"Just visiting?"

Ben shook his head no just as she was going to put a bandage above his eyebrow. Rey glared and he went still obediently.

"No, I'm moving out here next month from out of state. I had a few interviews this week."

"Well damn, was today was the last one?"

"What, you don't think this makes a good first impression?" he asked with a smirk.

"Maybe as a bouncer, but the flimsy office-types might faint, and you're straight up fucked if they're driving positions."

_"Shit!"_ he hissed as she surprised him with another round of disinfectant.

"Oop, sorry."

"No you're not."

"I can at least pretend to be."

He glared at her, but there was still a hit of a smile on his face. "They're all for computer programming and thankfully this morning was the last one."

"Nice timing," she said, snapping her kit closed and standing. "Well, I hope you get some good news soon."

"Thank you."

"Alright, up."

"'Up?'" he asked, staring at her with that glare again.

"I've had enough people with whiplash in my lobby to know these chairs are a one way ticket to the hospital for them. If you stay there, you'll end up leaving in a neck brace with EMS. There's a couch in the back."

He pushed himself up with another one of those sighs that made her stomach flip, and she resisted the instinct to take a step back.

This guy was _massive_. He must've been at least 6' 3" and was built like a brick. Proper posture made his shirt stretch over all the right places and Rey was precisely at eye level for most of them. She busied herself with putting her chair back where it belonged and focused on not staring.

Pokerface, woman. Don't drool on the customers.

"Where in the back?"

"What?"

"The couch."

"Ah. Right, behind the counter. You can go hang out there while we work on your car. And there's biscuits on the counter if you want some."

"Thanks," he mumbled. Ben didn't need to be told twice, snagging a cookie and going straight to the back of the office, disappearing behind the countertop. Rey shook her head to clear it, and grabbed a new tire off the wall when she heard him swear quietly around the bite in his mouth. "_Fuck,_ that's delicious."

Rey clenched her teeth and held in a laugh, trying not to let on that she heard him. She rolled the tire back into the garage with one hand while lugging the kit back in with the other.

Finn was lifting the car up to get the front wheels off the ground when she came in, and grinned as soon as the door banged shut behind her.

"What are you smiling about," she asked him, knowing she wouldn't like the answer.

"I saw you when he stood up. That was your 'oh no, he's hot' face. Are your panties still dry or do you need a trip to the ladies?"

She rolled her eyes and shoved the tire at him. "Shut up, Finn. Let's get this done."

"Yeah, sooner we do this the sooner he can do you."

"I will push you into the oil-change pit and lock you in for days."

"Someone needs to call IT, Kylo's got competition."

"That's it, another word, and you don't get peanut butter cookies until next Christmas!"

He gasped dramatically, a hand to his heart. "You wouldn't."

_"I would."_

"I fold."

"Good. Now grab me that torque wrench."

"Yes ma'am."

-

She was flat on her back, elbow deep in undercarriage when the door opened and Ben, or "tall-dark-and-scary", as Finn has taken to calling him, called out across the shop.

"What's your WiFi info?"

"Network is OutpostHost, password is ReyOfSunshine," Finn answered. "It's on a sticky note next to the keyboard. But that's if you can get it to work."

"Socket wrench, please," Rey asked, poking a hand out from under the car. It was deposited in her palm quickly.

"Challenge accepted. Where's your modem?"

"Under the desk," she hollered back.

The door closed. A second later, Finn dropped into a plank to make eye contact with her.

"Dude, I think he's actually going to fix our WiFi."

"Hallelujah."

-

Ben was sitting on the couch looking half out of it when Rey came in to call her supplier for a part that had not miraculously materialized in the garage. She tucked the phone against her shoulder and leaned back against the desk while she waited for them to pick up, side-eyeing her guest curiously.

"Did you manage to get the WiFi working?"

He glanced up at her with shadows under his eyes and a smirk on his mouth. "Of course I did."

She gave him a sly smile in return. "Talented _and_ humble."

The line connected, and Ben went back to tiredly rubbing his hands over his face and temples while she talked to her supplier. The phone cord gave her barely enough reach to get into her cabinets, and Rey heard the base slide irritatingly across the desk when she pushed her limits. She dug out the pillow and blanket she kept handy for the times she herself decided to sleep on the couch instead of going home. Though judging by the fact Ben had gone and undone the top two buttons of his shirt (_fuck, focus, Rey_) she doubted he'd actually need the latter.

"Just in case," she said softly, handing them to him.

"Thanks."

It took her another minute to finish up the call. Rey turned back to Ben with her arms crossed over her chest and lips pursed. "No offense, but you look awful."

"Thanks," he repeated, much more sarcastically.

"You sure you don't want to get checked out? I can't in good conscience have you sitting in here with a possible concussion."

"No I'm fine. It's just… been a very long couple of months. Coming to the decision to move back here hasn't really been easy. But, a friend of mine convinced me that family is worth fighting for."

"Sounds like they're a good friend."

"She is. It's just… when I move, I won't be able to talk to her anymore, and that's hard to come to terms with." He had spaced out, but seemed to come back to himself and glanced over at her, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I got carried away, you don't have to listen to me babble."

"I don't mind. If you feel like talking things out to a random person, you can."

He took a moment and a few deep breaths, but started talking again. "A year ago I never would have thought I'd be doing this. It's my friend's fault I'm even here," he laughed humorlessly, leaning forward to prop his elbows on his knees and drop his head in his hands. "She's such a staunch supporter of family and she's pushed for me to reach out, and I have, and things are getting better, and I want them to keep getting better, but... but I don't want her to feel like I'm abandoning her by leaving. She'd probably never admit that out loud, even if she did feel that way. I've come this far, came to all these conclusions and made decisions to change things for once, and I'm probably getting carried away with how much I actually mean to her, but now that there's this chance that I'll never talk to her again, I just… can't stop thinking about her."

"Do you love her?" Rey asked in a whisper.

He blushed hard and stared pointedly at the floor, pinching his lips and rolling his jaw as he mulled things over. "I… I don't know. I don't know that we're actually close enough for that. And she's not exactly attainable, even if I did."

Rey hummed, feeling out of her depth. She got a lot of emotional customers in her garage- mostly post-wreck panics and "how the hell am I going to get to x, y, and z now's"- but this was on a different level. Having the chance to have a relationship with her parents had been her dream for so long, but at this point she couldn't imagine the possibility of having to give up Finn or Rose, or damn, even Kylo for that chance. But Ben's parents were real and there, and hers have never been a part of her.

"What would you do?" Ben asked, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Solid friends or broken family?"

"I'd do anything for my family, no matter how broken. But… in my case, my friends _are_ my family."

"Well that's not very helpful."

"I know," she laughed. "What about your friend, what do you think she would do? Do you think she'd want you to stay where you are, instead of with your family?"

"No," he said with a soft smile, and the pure affection in his eyes made her heart clench. "No, she'd probably threaten to beat my ass if I so much as suggested it. I think… I think she'll be proud."

"Well there you have it. Talk to your friend about all the what's and why's, I'm sure she'll understand."

"I hope you're right."

"I usually am. Now why don't you get some rest and sleep on it. You still look exhausted, and I should get back to your car."

"Okay. And… thank you, Rey."

She grinned. "Any time."

-*-*-

"Oh for FUCKS SAKE!!"

Ben shot awake, sitting up so quickly he got light headed from the movement. His vision swam before the auto shop's office came into focus. He might have to rethink that concussion risk, and most definitely needed an optometrist.

"Keep it down, Rey, tall-dark-and-sleepy is still out."

"Not anymore," Ben grumbled, rubbing his eyes. He glared over at the counter, eyeing the dark-skinned guy who had towed him in and the young mechanic looking at him over her shoulder. They were blurry, but looked sheepish for having woken him up. Or for the ridiculous nickname. Probably both. He'd been trying to read the guy's name off his coveralls all morning, but with his glasses busted all he was able to distinguish was that it was short.

"Sorry," Rey said before turning back to bend in front of the computer.

Ben laid back down and threw his arm over his eyes, blocking out the fluorescent lights above. He did not check out her butt. He did _not_.

"Come _oooon_," she grit through her teeth. Ben cracked an eye open to watch her smacking CTRL-ALT-_deletedeletedelete_ over and over. "Work, you son of a bitch!" she hissed in that accent that made everything she said that much more entertaining.

It was one of the things that made talking to Niima so fun, the accent. He'd have to get used to not hearing from her if he was switching jobs. Ben tried not to let the disappointment get to him, again. Working at First Order was hell, he hated New York, and it would be much easier to make amends with his parents if he lived in the same state. Still, he'd come to relish office memos concerning nation-wide network changes knowing he'd get a call from her within the week. Niima had long stopped being a pain. She was something to look forward to.

But he was just her IT designee. And it was time to let go. No matter how much he didn't want to.

He told himself, not for the first time, to not abuse his last week of access by digging up her personal information in the company computers. He'd call her next Monday when he went back to finish his two weeks. She'd understand. She'd be happy for him, for not casting aside what she never got to have. Maybe she'd even miss him.

He really needed to stop thinking about her.

"You _need_ to get a new computer," the guy muttered.

"I keep requesting one, but management just won't approve the budget."

"How close are you to having the capital to open your own shop now?"

She sighed, trying a different combination of keystrokes. "A couple years, probably."

"One day we will attain our freedom," he sighed wistfully.

"But it is not this day," Rey grinned, though it soon turned into a snarl as she smashed on the keyboard again. "Come _on!"_

"I thought you called IT six hours ago for that?"

"I did, but they had this new guy and he told me he'd take care of it and that I could go back to work!"

See, this is why you always keep them on the line, Ben thought to himself. Amateurs…

"Well, call again, see if you can get Fuckhead this time."

Wait. What.

Ben sat up and looked back over at the desk, and the girl standing not ten feet from him sighing to herself. She leaned a hip against the desk, picked up the phone and hit one of the speed dial buttons, holding it up to her ear but back away from her mouth.

"Here's hoping he's back from whatever break he was on. I will never say this to his headpiece, but at least he's good at his job. Don't think I can say the same for this- heeey, Mitaka! Yeah, is the other guy back yet? … The grumpy one. ...the _what?!_ I am not-!" She cut herself off, glancing over where Ben sat on the couch, pretending to look at his phone. A blush flushed under her freckles and she turned her back on him. "I am _not_ his _girlfriend,"_ she hissed into the phone. Her co-worker laughed and went back into the shop. "But he is _my_ IT guy so-"

Ben watched her on the phone, his stomach turning with each bit of identifying information, and Rey's frown deepening every second.

"No," she said slowly. "No, I talked to you this morning and you _swore_ you knew what the issue was and that I would have a working system this afternoon. Well my system is still down, so go get him and put him on the phone because I would like to be working with someone I can actually trust!"

She closed her eyes, taking a few calming breaths, and the next thing out of her gritted teeth made his stomach drop completely.

"K2SO-BB8," she spat.

Oh my god.  
Oh my god oh my god ohmigod.

He must be losing his damn mind.

Ben tore his eyes away from the girl- who continued to talk smack to the idiot on the other line, oblivious to the panic attack he was having right behind her- and actually looked at the sign outside the window. His glasses were cracked to shit, but he held them up and managed to just barely make out the words.

_Niima Outpost._

His glasses dropped from his hands, bouncing onto the carpet.

That's…  
That's _her._

"No, it did not _fix it_. Let me speak to your manager, please! … Yeah, hi, I've got a few problems. First off, when does Kylo get back?"

Ben stood up at the same time she straightened, her face falling, voice barely audible.

"What do you mean he gave notice?"

He grabbed the phone out of her hand and slammed it back into the cradle, earning a shout from Rey, who proceeded to try to push him away from the desk as soon as he got his hand on the mouse.

"H-hey! Computer is for staff only, whether it's functioning or not."

"Move," he grit out, unable to look her in the eye. He pushed past her, and with a few quick keystrokes was typing in his own company ID. Her hand reached out to grab his, but she stopped before she made contact, reading the screen.

_KYL0-R3N_

She pulled away and let him work quietly. Ben had never fixed Niima's computer in such deafening silence. It took him five minutes and a few coding windows, but he had the system back up and in working order.

He straightened reluctantly, turning around to face her. She was staring at him, her head tilted to see his face at full height, close enough to see clearly. She was barely breathing. He took a moment to take her in and match her face to all the conversations he'd had with her over the past year.

Bright hazel eyes. Freckles everywhere. Wisps of hair falling out of her messy bun and into her face. A smudge of grease was swiped over her right brow. He clenched a fist to keep from trying to wipe it away. This is her. This is _his_ mechanic. _His Niima._ This is _her._

It didn't occur to him that she'd be so pretty.

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi," he muttered back. "Small world, huh, Niima."

"Yeah." She laughed once, like she could barely believe what was happening. "Nice to meet you, Fuckhead."

He grinned. "You too, salty bitch." She smiled at him and his heart melted.

"So, I'm assuming you've come to have me buy you that drink?"

"Of course. What other reason could there be for getting run off the road and risking death except to come meet the local mechanic."

"Finn can finish up. I'll drive."

"Good."

"It's really you," Rey said on a sigh, holding out her hand.

Ben dipped his head down and touched his forehead to hers. He reached out, took her hand, and didn't let go. "I found you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every computer issue featured in this story is a real thing that has happened to either me or someone I know. Please excuse the times Kylo had shared-screen and shouldn't have, it was done for plot reasons.  
Thank you for reading this ridiculous story about my chaotic space babies.


	2. Epilogue-In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all made my heart burst with your love of this fic, I can't handle it..  
A couple people commented wondering if there would be an epilogue. The dumb space babies said yes, yes there is.

"Come _ON!"_

"Hitting it isn't going to make it work."

"Oh what would you know, Finn?"

"'What would you know~'" he repeated in a nasally, mocking voice. "A hell of a lot more than you, that's for sure. Give it up, it's time to call for help."

"I don't want to make a fool of myself, _again._ You help me."

"You know I can't, I'm already late to go pick up Poe."

"Finn, come on, you gotta help me with this."

"Just call it in, my friend."

"Uuuugh."

Ben let his head fall forward and thump against the roof of the car. Finn got on his motorcycle to abandon him and Ben flipped him off. The other man raised his hand in the _I love you_ sign and rode off down the street. Admitting defeat, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, found the right number, and waited for them to pick up.

"Millennium Automotives, this is Rey, how can I help you?"

"Hey babe," he sighed into the mic.

"Ben? What's up?"

"I can't get the car to work."

Rey was quiet for a minute before she snorted out a laugh. "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?"

"Oh _fuck you."_

"Yes please," she giggled.

He tried really hard not to smile at his fiancee's antics. He really did. And failed miserably.

"Please, just come and help me."

"Okay, okay, and what's your location, sir?"

Ben rolled his eyes at her business voice. "I'm at the gym. Finn fucking deserted me to go get Poe from the airport. Can you believe that? Chose picking up his damn husband over helping me."

_"Rude._ Let me go warn your dad and I'll be there to rescue you in ten."

"My hero. What would I do without you?"

"Ride the bus."

"Ugh, no, not public transportation," he groaned.

"What, you're too good for it, your highness?"

"You weren't there, Rey. You don't know what New York subways are like. The things I've seen, heard, and smelled haunt my nightmares to this day. You could never understand."

"Aww, poor baby. But _you_ haven't had to detail the backseat of a car someone's given birth in."

"...Okay, you win."

"Of course I do."

"Now, will you go say bye to dad and come take your rightful place by my side?"

"As soon as you stop talking."

"Hey, you _love_ the sound of my voice, admit it."

_"Fine."_

"Say it. Say you love it."

"I love you," she laughed.

Close enough, Ben thought as he grinned. "I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand more to come once I hash out the little bit left of their story to tell.  
I can make no promises on if the coming drabble will truly be the last of it, these guys keep surprising me.


	3. Click 'Next' to Continue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dumb space babies had one more story of theirs to tell in this AU.  
Beware if you are lactose intolerant because this closing chapter is FULL of cheese.
> 
> For context, this takes place about two months after the events of the main story and a couple years before the epilogue.

"Something about this doesn't feel right," Rey muttered. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's definitely something."

"I know what doesn't feel right to me, and it's having to hunch over the damn keyboard. Why the hell don't you have a desk chair?"

"I prefer to feel like I'm constantly about to walk away from my computer. It's freeing. I _love_ walking away from my computer."

"It's bad for your back."

"It's bad for _your_ back, you grouchy giant."

Ben glared up at her and sighed. The sound of it made her feel better, but something was still off. Unfortunately the sigh was all she got before he turned his attention back to the technobabble in front of him.

"Are you sure you should be working on that when you're not an employee anymore?"

"Do I come off as someone who gives a fuck about corporate technicalities?"

"Fair enough."

He sighed again, typing away in one window while a progress bar inched along in another. "This computer is a piece of shit, but it's the piece of shit you're stuck with every day, and I refuse to let you suffer through the incompetence that is the rest of that IT department." Ben tilted his head, still looking at the screen, and did that _thing_ he does with his mouth when he thinks. Almost like he's chewing on nothing. It always made Rey stare at his mouth and her brain stop for a minute and she hated it. "Maybe it's because you called me instead of IT?"

"No, that's not it." She paused to bend backwards and heard a few joints in her spine pop. She's been sitting on the desk for too long. Ben was staring at her when she straightened back up and she smirked at him. "Hearing someone else's voice on the line is even weirder than whatever this is. And like you said, they're incompetent. Plus I think they've blacklisted my caller ID since I cursed out Hex last month."

"Hux," he corrected.

"Whatever. He was a bastard who wasn't equipped to handle me and my monstrosity."

"I don't think anyone except myself is experienced enough to handle you, Salty."

She slapped her thigh when it finally came to her, startling Ben with the noise.

"You didn't ask for my user ID!"

"I don't need to ask for it, I've had it memorized for two years."

"Yeah, but for two years, we've started the You Fix My Computer process with you asking for my user ID. I'm pretty sure that's what's throwing me off. We started the whole system wrong today."

Ben rolled his eyes and went back to work. "We'll break you of the habit soon enough. I'm personally of the opinion you should quit, anyway. This company is evil and it doesn't deserve talented employees like us serving it."

"Well I'd follow your lead, but you went and got a job with cyber security and they don't have much need for mechanics. Plus, Finn works here."

"We'll take him, too. That'll stick it to the man."

"Speaking of, I think I've abandoned my right hand man for nearly half an hour now. How much longer do you think this is going to take?"

"Depends, do you want the hunk of junk to work for two weeks, or just through the weekend?"

"Mmm, that's a tough one. Pro, you have to come back and hang out with me. Con, you have to come back and I have to hang out with you…"

"If you're going to be like that, I _could_ decide not to answer your distress call."

She gasped in offense. "You'd _never_."

"I might," he said while smirking up at her. "You know you don't have to 'stay on the line' anymore, though. Go back and finish your work so we can go to lunch together. I'm starving."

"I made cinnamon rolls," she said, pushing the container over. They had been hidden behind her while she sat on the desk, and their arrival into his line of sight distracted him from seeing the faint blush heating her face.

"Ooh, yay," Ben whispered delightedly, pausing a moment to pick one up before turning back to the computer to work one-handed.

If there was anything better than listening Ben type away at his keyboard, it was _watching_ him type. His fingers were quick and adept- she had yet to see him get anywhere close to the backspace button- and, like the rest of him, were huge. Having one palm occupied with the pastry did little to slow him down and Rey had to stop herself _right the fuck now_ when she caught herself wondering what else he was capable of with those hands.

She made herself scarce and hurried back into the garage.

Finn was in the pit, right where she'd left him when Ben had shown up, tinkering around their current assignment. He was not alone, though, unlike how she'd left him. His boyfriend turned to greet her with a sunny smile.

"Hey there, sweetheart!"

"What are you doing in there, Poe? You don't even work here."

"The oil change pit is a prime location for inconspicuous butt-grabs," he replied with a grin. Finn jumped, conspicuously, and attempted to continue working as his dark skin flushed even darker. Rey jumped into the pit with them, taking over the main task so Finn could rest his arms and have a free hand to swat at Poe.

"What had you in the office so long, other than the obvious?" he asked.

She raised a brow but answered Finn's question instead of asking her own. "Ben was trying to convince me that we should both quit and find work with an un-evil company and intelligent IT department."

"He is not wrong. Now that we've stolen him this company's tech has gotten a lot worse. And we are worth so much more than the Fuck Offs are paying us. Especially you, one-man-banding things all the time."

"You still on track to finish your Master's in two years?" Poe asked.

"Yeah- move the flashlight just a bit, _there_\- and I know I should probably find something better, but I like what I do, and being unsupervised allows me to work on homework here."

"Well you just let me know when you finally come to your senses and realize planes are superior, I'm happy to give you a recommendation."

"Thanks, Poe," she laughed. "But I'm going to stick with cars, or my Master's with a focus on automotives would be useless."

"You mean you actually want to _use_ your degree? Look at you, going against the status quo."

"I think that's the problem," Finn muttered, pointing at the part she had her hands on.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Let me just- _Shit_," she hissed as the connection came loose and fluid splattered all over her clothes. Of course, on the day she had decided to tie her coveralls around her waist instead of wearing them properly. She sighed, watching the oil seep into her t-shirt. "I'll be right back."

Rey hopped out with a curse and pulled her shirt off over her head before the stain could get through to her sports bra (she _liked_ this one, _damnit_.) She went into the office, heading for the storeroom where she kept extra clothes. Ben glanced up from the computer as she walked by and choked on his cinnamon roll.

She sighed. "I keep telling you not to eat them that fast."

The poor bastard was still hacking up a storm, so she delayed her clothing quest to go slam her hand on his back a few times. It took him a minute, but he managed to pull in a couple deep breaths.

"You good?"

"Yep," he wheezed.

She gave his shoulder a squeeze, partly as a reassurance and partly for her own merriment, and finally went to find a shirt. She snatched one off the shelf and shook it out on her way back through the office. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ben rub his hands roughly over his face when she passed. That computer must really be giving him shit.

When she came back into the garage, Finn and Poe were both staring at her. The former looked disappointed, the latter had a pitying expression.

"What?" she asked, pulling on the clean shirt.

"I can't believe you just did that to him," Poe said, shaking his head.

"Did what, help him not die by cinnamon roll?"

"If his death would be by cinnamon roll, you are that cinnamon roll, Rey."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not following."

Poe pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Ben? You okay, buddy?" Finn called out, loud enough to be heard through the door. Rey and Poe followed his line of sight to where Ben stood with his back to them, holding himself up against the desk. He gave them a thumbs up but didn't turn around.

"That poor boy," Poe sighed.

"What?" Rey repeated in confusion.

"Rey, sweetheart, this might come out condescending, but it comes from a place of love." Poe put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "I know you've spent the last however many years with only another woman and gay men as friends, and you've grown comfortable in your habits with the people you trust, but now that Ben's here you need to be a bit more considerate when you're walking around with a body that powerful."

"I don't understand," she said, truly meaning it. "I mean, I know I hit too hard sometimes, and if I hurt Ben it wasn't on purpose, but I don't see what that has to do with you guys being gay."

"We're not talking about your muscles, we're talking about your hotness," Finn deadpanned.

"What?!"

"Rey, Ben was totally checking you out every time you looked away from him."

"He was not," she scoffed.

"He so was. I mean, the stretch thing?" Poe raised his arms over his head and exaggerated a stretch that shoved his chest forward (which, she had to admit, was very similar to the way she cracked her back.) Finn made a show of widening his eyes and staring pointedly at his boyfriend's pecks in the process.

"You guys are dumb."

"We had front row seats, Rey. We wouldn't lie to you about that sort of thing. Dude thinks you're hot."

"Come on, guys, Ben doesn't… he… no." She cleared her throat and willed her heart to stop beating that fast, _damnit_. "He doesn't see me like that. We're friends."

"Well I can't say whether or not he's daydreaming about proposing, but he definitely likes your tits and walking past him without your shirt _wrecked_ him."

"And you did it twice," Poe laughed.

"I don't believe you," she stated stubbornly, going to work on a bolt that really didn't need to be tightened as hard as she was yanking on it. "Besides, seeing someone shirtless doesn't make one's brain skid to such a sudden stop that they'd choke. I didn't cause that."

"Okay, that's it," Poe said, getting to his feet and going to prop the door open. "Ben, come here."

"I'd really prefer not to, I see this ending badly for me."

"Just get over here."

"Why?" he whined, walking over anyway.

"Rey is dumb, we have to be very straight with her," Finn told him.

"The only time we will be straight with anything," his boyfriend said with a nod. "Now take off your shirt."

"What?!" Ben gasped and Rey shrieked in tandem.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"I'm _not_ desperate," Rey mumbled under her breath. Finn turned and gave her a deadpanned look as Poe continued to invade Ben's personal space.

"Do it, or I shall have to use force."

Ben crossed his arms over his broad chest and stared down his nose at him. "I'd like to see you try."

Having heard the magic words, Poe jumped off the ground and wrapped his legs around Ben's waist, fingers deftly starting to undo the buttons of his shirt. Ben tried to pull him off, but to no avail, the shorter man's ankles were locked behind his back in a vice grip. He executed an amazing twist that had him spinning around to Ben's back without ever having his feet touch the ground, and used the new position to yank the shirt open and halfway down his arms.

_Oh dear lord, this man is ripped as hell_, Rey thought, her mouth going dry. She tried not to stare, she really did, but his jeans were slung _just_ low enough and once she'd gotten a glimpse of the V of his hips all coherent thought fled her brain.

Poe balled up Ben's shirt, jumped down, and threw the offending fabric as far as he could. He grabbed him by the shoulders and squared him in front of Rey. 

Okay, something like that would definitely make her choke.

"Alright, Rey, it's time to face some hard muscles and harder truths. Stop- no- quit staring up at the ceiling, there are no answers there. _Look at the beautiful man and tell us how you feel, Rey."_

_"Leave Ben alone,"_ she groaned to the beams.

"Ben would like to be left alone," the man in question agreed.

Poe continued, unmoved by their complaints. "The unresolved romantic tension has gone on too long-"

"I've only been in California for two months-"

"_Far_ too long, I say!"

"And what the hell do you mean by 'romantic tension'?!" Ben choked out. Rey wanted to melt into the floor, but the concrete was completely unyielding.

"Ohmygosh, babe," Poe sighed. "They're really that stupid."

Finn shrugged. "I kept telling you, but you wouldn't believe me."

"I had faith in them, it's my tragic downfall. Make her look, love." Finn didn't hesitate coming up behind Rey, looping his arms under and around hers, and putting his hands on the back of her head, despite her screeches of protest. He used the position to force her to look straight ahead whether she wanted to or not. She squeezed her eyes shut in protest. "Okay, you dumb babies. _Rey_. Do you think Ben is pretty?"

"This is really invasive, Poe," Rey said instead of answering.

"You have one minute before I hurt you," Ben growled down to Poe.

"I believe you, but I have a point to make. Rey. How do you feel?"

"Just look at him and answer," Finn sighed.

Poe nodded. "It's that easy."

"Don't make me do this," she nearly sobbed.

"I have twenty seconds before he hurts me. Come on. _Rey_."

Her face was burning, but when she opened her eyes to look at Ben she realized they made a blushing pair. And he looked… nervous.

"I… I… yeah," she finally squeaked out.

"Very good. Now, Ben, do you think Rey is pretty?"

"Yes." The lack of hesitation threw her off and she was suddenly glad Finn was there to hold her up.

"Aaaand _time_!" Poe announced. He let Ben go, and Rey pushed Finn off her with a glare he returned with a kissy face.

"Can I put my shirt back on now?"

"I'd really prefer you didn't. Anyway," he said, turning back to Rey. "Now that you've acknowledged how the very pretty man makes you feel, and you understand that he also sees you as a very pretty person, do you understand what you do to him?"

"We're not having this conversation, Poe. You took that far enough," Rey grumbled. She snatched Ben's shirt off the ground, grabbed him by the wrist, and pulled him back into the office. She shook out the shirt, inspecting it for grease stains, and determined it had miraculously come out unscathed. "Sorry about that," she muttered, handing it back to Ben.

"I know you described Poe as a 'ride or die' kind of friend, but I never thought it would be that intense."

"It's honestly a miracle he's survived this long. If I didn't know Finn was hiding a ring I'd probably consider killing the man myself right about now." She took a deep breath and stared at the floor. "And… and I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, walking around without my shirt."

He didn't say anything for a minute and she risked glancing up at him. He'd paused a couple buttons into redressing, his face was completely red, and he was _doing that thing with his mouth again. Fuck._

"Well, unfortunately, they're not wrong. But I wouldn't say you have to be sorry about it," he said eventually, his voice low. He looked down at his shoes, kicking at the carpet. "You deserve to be comfortable in your own space. I'm the one who should apologize, for staring."

"You were?"

His blush got darker. "Yeah."

"You really think I'm pretty?" she asked shyly. Her friends called her pretty and beautiful all the time, but they were her _friends_ (and none of them happened to be attracted to women), so it wasn't something the perpetual tomboy had truly taken to heart.

"I do," he said, sounding even more confident with the answer now that Tweedledum and Dumber were in another room.

"Like…" With her hesitation, he looked up at her. She took a second to steel herself. "Like pretty as a friend?"

A smile stretched across his face and the way he looked into her eyes made it hard to breathe. "No."

With a burst of courage, Rey grabbed him by the hand, dragged him around the desk, pushed him into the storage closet, and shut the door behind them. It wasn't a long distance to move, but they were both breathing heavily, the space so small and filled with shelving that they were already chest to chest and staring at each other.

His hands came up to her face, hers fisted in his shirt. They both pulled together and his mouth was on hers and the single thread she had been holding on by snapped. Her legs felt weak and, as if sensing it, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him and _damn_ that felt as good as she thought it would.

"When?" she gasped as he moved to kiss a line up her jaw. "When did things change for you?"

"I've been a little bit in love with you since Thanksgiving," he admitted, lips ghosting over the shell of her ear making her shudder. "Your voice broke me when you said you'd be alone that day and I was _desperate_ to do anything to make you feel better. That's when I knew. The day we finally met, and you came at me with all your sass and determination from the first time you spoke, you had me wrapped around your finger before you even told me your name. When I found out it was _you_ I was lost completely."

"Christmas," she breathed, his teeth tugging on her earlobe.

"What?"

"I've loved you since Christmas."

Ben pulled back to look at her, eyes narrowed in confusion. "I yelled at you at Christmas."

She nodded, her hand coming up to trail down his face. "But you didn't hang up. You were _that_ angry, but you still didn't hang up. You didn't leave me. That's how _I_ knew." She smiled and kissed the edge of his jaw. "I was devastated when they told me you quit."

"It was only for a second. I was right there…"

"I know that now, but it was still an awful second, thinking I'd never get to hear your voice again. That someone I loved had left, again."

"I'm never going to leave you," he swore, kissing her again and making her believe him.

Her hands undid the two buttons he had managed to redo on his shirt, and she slid her hands over the expanse of his stomach. He groaned into her mouth and she nearly melted. It didn't take her long before she pushed him back up against a shelf and climbed him like a tree, his hands gripping her thighs gripping his hips, and got the higher ground to kiss him more thoroughly.

They broke apart to catch their breath when she heard a soft shuffling noise. Looking down, Rey noticed that _someone_ had slid a pack of condoms under the door. _"For her pleasure,"_ they read mockingly.

"Oh for crying out loud," Rey mumbled, clambering down and yanking the door open. Poe had nearly made it back to the safety of the garage, but turned around with an all-too-innocent look when he heard the door. "Why do you even have those?!"

"Sweetheart, I went to buy you those as soon as I saw _him_ get off the plane," Poe laughed.

"I never should've let you drive me to the airport," she grumbled.

"Well Finn might've been willing to let you run off with a man who says he's your phone-pal from New York, but I'd prefer you be chaperoned for first encounters. I needed to make sure he was good enough for you."

"I didn't _let_ her run anywhere," Finn argued, appearing to stand by and defend his partner. "She abandoned me at work to go make goo-goo eyes at the man."

"He passed out in my truck and I took him to the _hospital,_" Rey snapped back.

"Did I pass inspection?" Ben asked, leaning a forearm against the doorframe, shirt fixed, hair tousled and a cheeky smirk on his lips.

"Your biceps definitely did," Poe said with a grin as he leaned into Finn's shoulder.

"Watching the way you were with her over the next few weeks," Finn said, shrugging. "That sealed the deal."

"You know, you didn't have to rip my shirt off to get us together. I would've gotten to it soon enough."

"Your 'soon enough' was taking too long. Our poor girl was practically coming apart at the seams."

"I didn't know if she felt the same way!"

"Because you're blind!"

Ben turned to Rey for support and got nothing. "I've been a mess for weeks," she said, agreeing with Finn's assessment. "You have very nice hands."

He groaned and ran his hands over his face. "Oh come on! Is anyone on my side?"

"We're all on your side," Finn told him in his mom-friend voice. "But Ben, your social intelligence can't be trusted. It took you five hours to realize that our Rey was the same British, female mechanic in Northern California you'd been talking to for two years."

"I was concussed!" he balked, then turned to point an accusing finger at Rey. "And I still haven't fully forgiven you for taking me to the hospital."

"And I'm still not sorry," she said, rolling her eyes.

"They put an IV in me, Rey. There was something under my skin that didn't belong there. It was _horrible._"

"You poor baby. Should I kiss it and make it better?"

That pulled him up short. Finn and Poe took the opportunity to make a wise decision and start backing away slowly while he stared heatedly at Rey. She let a smile stretch over her face nice and slow.

"Want to go take that lunch break?" she asked, taking his hand, looking forward to _everything_, together.

"Yes please."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks!! Kylo the IT guy is signing off and taking his Rey with him.
> 
> I have a few more Reylo stories in the works, but unfortunately I write stories like quilters make blankets- patches all over the place that need to be stitched together.
> 
> Thank you all SO much for the loving comments and all the kudos... It has been such a joy to have my first fic received with such positivity, and I'm greatly looking forward to sharing more with you.

**Author's Note:**

> Every computer issue featured in this story is a real thing that has happened to either me or someone I know. Please excuse the times Kylo had shared-screen and shouldn't have, it was done for plot reasons.  
Thank you for reading this ridiculous story about my chaotic space babies.
> 
> Feel free to yell at me on Tumblr  
[theeamazingem](https://theeamazingem.tumblr.com/)  
Dedicated Star Wars Side Blog  
[itsagreyjediarea](https://itsagreyjediarea.tumblr.com/)


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